A study of some frameworks used by pupils aged 11 to 13 years in the interpretation of air pressure

Summaries

English

When children interpret experiments concerning the physical properties of gases, they generally use frameworks from the field of mechanics. In reality, these experiments give them the opportunity of expressing relationships between movement, equilibrium and mechanical dimensions, such as forces.

In their experimental interpretations, children aged 11 to 13 years emphasize in most cases those stages of an experiment which involve movement: movement as a cause of pressure change of a gas, and movement as the effect of this pressure change. This leads them to express frameworks which have been similarly observed by Piaget and other authors. For example, movement of air in one direction is thought to cause or to be caused by a specific force in one direction; similarly, the state of equilibrium and thus the immobility at the end of the experiment, are characterized by an absence of forces.

The interpretations of several experiments relating to air pressure are analysed using the commentaries of children aged 11 to 13 in class and interviews carried out with children of the same age.